London Marathon is showcase for the capital

As someone who has run or watched the Virgin Money London Marathon for the past 17 years, my favourite part of the course, you won’t be surprised to hear, is the finish line!

There is nothing better than seeing the packed stands as you round the corner at Buckingham Palace and head up The Mall with your agony about to end.

I will be there again on Sunday to watch my father Jim, who will be running his seventh London Marathon in a row at the tender age of 77 – dad has definitely left me in the shade.

We ran three of his seven together and like the 35,000 expected to finish this year, we loved and hated parts of the 26 miles 385 yards in equal measure.

You can’t beat the atmosphere at the start or at where the three massed starts converge at Woolwich Barracks which will be especially poignant as the first marathon since the murder of fusilier Lee Rigby on the very same streets.

Greenwich has to be my No1 place to run and watch. At the six-mile point as a runner you are still feeling fresh and the crowds are buzzing often 10 deep at the Cutty Sark.

You know you are half way when you hit Tower Bridge before the long slog through Docklands and Canary Wharf, made easier in recent years by redevelopment, but somewhere I remember as being desolate back in 1997.

Then it’s on to the Embankment as you turn for home. I hope Sunday’s runners are not hit by the hail-storm we faced in 2009 they can then enjoy – unlikely I accept with your body aching - the last four miles as the realisation dawns that they are going to make it!